Manipulated Tools
by Charli Jinchuriki
Summary: TenTen eliminated by Temari, Neji by Hinata, Lee crippled by Gaara. Team Gai is swept out the Chunin Exams. TenTen, hurt by her loss improves with help of her academy year's failure, Kurai. She hadn't seen him in years but until Lee recovers, Kurai is made a temporary member of Team Gai. As cocky and hard working as ever, he brings dark secrets that greatly effects her. And Konoha


Battle Scxrs

_**Manipulated Tools**_

**Weapon One: **Chunin Exams Sweep

**. … . … .**

After Team Gai is swept out of the Chunin Exams, TenTen catches up with the Academy Failure of her graduating year for some much needed TLC. Remembering that she isn't the only one seeking strength through weakness, she bounces back. Later, the power balance begins to shift and results in changing the trajectory of the Elemental Nations.

**. … . … .**

Tenten's eyes were closed, only seeing the sweet nothing of unconsciousness as her body hung limp over the folded fan of the Suna princess, Temari No Sabaku. The hands of whom she'd been handily defeated with.

Meanwhile, Hayate Gekko called the match, "Match! Sabaku No Temari!" was called loudly and the bun haired brunette was dropped unkindly to the ground.

As Lee and Team Gai's sensei, Gai arrived to the bloody arena floor to check on and retrieve TenTen, the Gai look-a-like couldn't hold his tongue for the blatant show of disrespect on display.

"You should show more respect, was it not enough that you won, but you also had to throw her to the floor in such a manner?" Lee's eyes narrowed with anger as Gai collected his student, looking over the confrontation. "That's inappropriate and downright unyouthful!" Lee spat through gritted teeth. Turned out it was a rare show of Lee's anger as he was usually jovial in most matters; even in times of confrontation.

Temari only scoffed as her fan was reattached to her back once again. "As if I give a damn what you say or think." The dirty blonde turned her back on the scene and stepped off to return to the upper balcony which was serving as the viewing platform.

Meanwhile, Lee's fists clenched tightly in deep frustration as he watched his sensei wave off the medic-nin that arrived moments later with a stretcher to take away TenTen. "I'll carry her to get aid, please save the stretcher." Gai told the medics before looking back to his student. "Lee… Let it go. The match is over with, TenTen lost. Our focus should be for our team mate now." Gai spoke soberly in light of the situation.

"I know how hard she worked sensei," Lee said, tone full of disappointment and melancholy. "She drove herself to exhaustion everyday for the last three months to prepare...and then this... That Suna kunoichi has no respect for Tenten's drive or work ethic! Disregarded as if she were.-"

"I know, Lee. Try to calm down and we'll see that TenTen gets the help she needs. Her injuries aren't that bad and you know she'll want to see your and Neji's matches when she wakes up. As frustrating as this might be, TenTen wouldn't want any pity. We can deal with the other stuff later on. Don't feel sorry for her, you know she hates sympathy, nor does she need it. She pulled an unfavorable matchup and had nothing to fall back on for the occasion of fighting against someone with wind nature jutsu." Again, Gai's voice was even and serious as they cleared from the arena floor to give way for the next match.

Lee just lowered his head and sighed as he followed his sensei, but gave a nod of understanding. "I know, sensei. I know."

As they carried TenTen off to receive medical treatment, flanked by Medic-nins; Temari watched them go in silence, letting out long suffering scoff. "Who the hell do they think they are...questioning me, and for winning no less." She muttered despite not feeling fully confident with her statement.

Temari quickly realized she was just covering for herself and that secretly, though she'd never admit it, she was feeling jealous of the cohesive bond and relationship that Team Gai obviously possessed. When she saw them during the beginning of the Chunin Exams, she thought they looked like three people that had been randomly selected and thrown on the same team together. If only for Konoha to have one more team representing them as the host of these exams.

Though she'd never admit it, her jealousy had gotten the better of her and she'd lost her cool, that wasn't what Suna was here for, yet she'd taken her pain of not having a caring sensei and reliable teammates out on the kunoichi weapons specialist. Despite the fact that she was on a team with her two younger brothers she wasn't happy with her team. She figured that any ninja would consider the prospect of being paired with their siblings on one team 'cool' or advantageous, but it'd been the exact opposite. She loved her family, or wanted to at least, but Gaara was psychotic while she and Kankuro treated each other with mutual indifference on the best of days. In fact, the only thing the two of them did share was their fear of Gaara killing one of them. Meanwhile, Baki was insensitive and often times cruel. He also preferred playing up to the Suna council and her father by agreeing and pushing any agenda her bastard father assigned them while masking that agenda as a mission.

Pakura of the Scorch release was a good example of Suna's consistent political follies. That and the fact their country's own daimyo preferred to have as little to do with Suna as possible, resulting in most of the village's missions being directed to Konoha.

The fact that she was first born daughter to the Kazekage and a Suna princess meant little to her, and she would gladly give the title to whoever wanted it; it hadn't gotten her all that far ahead in the first place. She felt her life wasn't everything that people thought it was. Being born to privilege had its unmistakable advantages and perks, but she would gladly give it up for simply being a respected and proven kunoichi; feared for her ability and not for her father or Gaara. No one would argue that she was well on her way and she slightly realized that, but the circumstances surrounding her in Suna hindered the type of respect she sought and worked for. It was given to her, no matter what, because of who her father was, and she absolutely couldn't stand it. She craved for a different sort of acknowledgement. She didn't want people to argue that everything she accomplished was handicapped because it had been given, rather than earned.

Temari only sighed as her foul mood gave way to mental sulking. However, she still would not apologize for winning her match. Perhaps her actions afterward were slightly in the wrong, but she played to win. None of her actions during her fight did not give her pause. She didn't even bother to glance at Gaara as he wore a permanent mask that openly realized his psychotic nature, and Kankuro was...well, she truly...just didn't care.

**. … . … .**

"Alright. Just place her down here and we'll run the medical diagnostic jutsu." The Chief of Medicine was on call due to the nature of the Chunin Exams. He'd already treated one boy who lost his own arm because it exploded from the inside out due to a build up of pressure while trying to perform his jutsu.

There were a few Genin ninja around to assist the more experienced and seasoned iryo-nin, likely apprentices or medical volunteers interested in learning more about the role of a healer and to gain experience.

"Hey, what? This is TenTen..." One of the shinobi standing nearby muttered out of surprise, his Konoha hitai-ate tied at a slanted angle around his head as he leaned over the unconscious girl. He reached out, using a single finger to move a stray strand of brown hair from her sweaty face.

The action and statement made by the brown skinned Genin after Gai laid her to rest on a gurney got Lee's attention almost immediately. The keen tone was familiar to the green clad member of Team Gai and as he looked over, and he smiled for the first time since his teammate had taken her loss. "Kurai? Son Kurai-kun...is that you!?" Lee inquired excitedly with a large white smile. When the boy with brown skin rarely seen in Konoha with wild, thick red hair slanting in various angles from his head leaned up to look, Lee immediately bolted over.

"Kurai-kun, it is you! It's been awhile, I never expected to see you here!" Lee exclaimed as he and the taller, athletically built Genin embraced in a hug.

"Got damn, look at you!" The young shinobi identified as Kurai laughed as he put his hand to Lee's head and started messing with his hair. "It sure as hell has. You went and switched up your whole style, cutting your hair and dressing differently." Kurai grabbed the white medical haori he wore over a black flak vest to adjust it over his shoulders as he gave a nonchalant shrug. A silver Son Clan chain and pendant dangled around his neck from the movement.

"I never expected to see you here, either. Still, I heard a lot of talk about how your team was coming in hot this year..." Kurai glanced over to the medic examining TenTen and spoke low. "Truthfully, I volunteered to do medical service in hopes of seeing if anyone I knew made it through."

Lee nodded. "I see you're a ninja now too. When you didn't graduate with TenTen and I, we were a little sad. TenTen told me you had to go back for remedial training after the academy exams because your teammates ended up fighting each other."

"Yeah, that's all true. The test was a complete farce." Lee listened to his former classmate.

Kurai Son was of Lee's, Tenten's, and Neji's academy years. He was an exception to the rule that being from a clan with a prominent bloodline automatically made them suited for being a skilled ninja, and Lee vividly remembered Kurai struggling a great deal. He struggled with not only the academy stuff, but with adjusting to the activation of his clan's kekkai-genkai as well. Which only compounded the situation.

The Son clan had a bloodline that was amazing. Their clansmen were born with the ability to use Yin and Yang nature chakra naturally and were born with two, rather than one, nature affinity. This gave them numerous types of elements to form and use, some even self-taught. The one obvious drawback to the bloodline was that they couldn't use Yin-Yang Release, as Son clan members could only use one or the other at a time, but never both at once.

The Son Clan bloodline could be both a gift and a curse as well. Kurai had a difficult time controlling his chakra after his twelfth birthday. There were numerous training accidents where he'd unintentionally injured several of his fellow clansmen that were either helping him or standing nearby. He was rare in that his emotions seemed to play a large part in his difficulty to even perform chakra control exercises without causing damage. This was partially due to the fact that those of the Son clan were born with a large but even amount of yin and yang chakra, but for some reason, Kurai's yin and yang chakra were uneven.

It got so bad that some of their classmates' parents complained to the Hokage after he set the academy practice grounds on fire. Later on, Lee remembered TenTen telling him the Son clan were considering sending him outside the village so he could undergo special training to help him adjust to activating his bloodline without outside stressors. The members of Team Gai had no idea if the Son Clan followed through with that since they were always busy with their own lives after graduating.

The expectations of being in a clan also weighed on him when things looked bleak and his future as a ninja was in question. After Kurai failed, Lee wasn't sure what exactly happened to him, with the exception of TenTen stating he'd finished remedial studies and training, but still had to take remedial courses.

"Yeah, that's true. It was for the best though… I ended up on a team that I could tolerate and a pretty cool sensei on top of that. We have a perfect mission completion record so far, but something happened so everyone's on leave right now. Man...I struggled for a long time and I had serious doubts, and I even went through a depression. But then I thought of you and how hard you work. You and TenTen made it with hard work and dedication, so why not me too?" Kurai gave Lee a light jab to his shoulder, smirking.

Lee gave a nod and a thumbs up as he smirked. "Sounds like you're a Master of Hard Work now too, my friend."

"Yosh! This sounds like a youthful conversation taking place over here. Lee, who is your friend?"

"Ah, Gai-sensei. Yes, this is Kurai Son; we were in the academy together and both struggled but worked hard to earn the right to call ourselves shinobi. He's a good friend to me, but we haven't really seen each other since our academy days." Lee's voice sounded disappointed by the end of his words.

"Right, I just had a different path to take. I'm humbled by meeting you, sensei. I've heard a lot about you and your training sessions. I've been working on developing my taijutsu, do you think you could give me some tips sometime?" He inquired. "Might be a bad time to ask, but hey, I may not get the chance to ask again."

"Kurai-kun, I think I have something better. After the prelims for this test is over, find me, and we'll work out a day to have you come train with us. Team Gai is well balanced with close to long range specialists and since you know them already, it should be productive for everyone!" Gai gave him an emphatic thumbs up, a polarizing smile, and a wink."

"Great, thank you. I'll have to do just that." Kurai responded with a quick bow and a level of energy that Gai seemed to like just fine.

That was when the Chief-of-Medicine walked over to the three conversing ninja. He gave a narrowed gaze in Kurai's direction as if he figured the Genin a troublemaker. "Don't you have some reports to be working on rather than bothering Chunin Exam participants? I expect that paper work done by the time the prelims are wrapped. You asked for this assignment, remember? Now, I hope you aren't regretting your decision. I'm not going to have to report this to Hokage-sama and your clan, am I?"

"Nah- I mean, no...no, sensei. You're absolutely right," Kurai sighed as the doctor nodded and stepped away while Kurai rolled his eyes while turning to address Gai and Lee with a bow. "Good luck in this crazy gig, Lee. Thanks for the offer, Gai-sensei… And, oh yeah, tell Ten-chan not to be a stranger and that she's still the strongest kunoichi I know." Kurai shot Lee a wink as he held out his large fist.

"Mission accepted." Lee grinned as he and Kurai bumped fists before the latter departed to the small office space nearby with his hands shoved into the pockets of his black shorts. The protective mesh he wore covered the length of his legs in black while the white high-tops on his feet clapped lightly across the ground as he disappeared into the small corner office.

A dark haired medic stepped over to speak with Gai after finishing with her examination of TenTen. "Your student will be just fine. All of her wounds were superficial and we've cleaned and healed those. Besides that, she suffered a mild-concussion, but she'll be up in no time at all. If she's well enough when she wakes up, I'll send her out." The medic said quickly before leaving them to continue with her work.

"Great." Gai placed his hand on Lee's shoulder. "Let's get back."

**. … . … .**

{One Week Later}

TenTen let out a strained sigh as she reached from beneath her bed sheets to turn off her blaring alarm clock on the table stand nearby. The girl's long, brown hair undone from their usual buns left the soft strands free to curtain around her head in waves. She sat up in bed and pushed the covers off as she yawned and adjusted the white sports bra she'd slept in. Throwing bare legs off the side of the bed the matching boy shorts she wore showed off strong, toned legs as her feet met quietly with the floor. She padded across the bedroom floor with plans of taking a long hot shower filling her sleepy mind.

Since Neji also failed to qualify for the finals, he would be wanting to train just as much as ever. The only bad thing about it was that Lee had lost his match, and it'd been absolutely brutal. The sense of levity that proceeded throughout most of the prelims was murdered and buried in blood and sand. The nature of the shinobi business was once again brought to the forefront. Gaara of the Sand, she knew there was something off about that kid, he'd been out for blood from the start.

When Lee made Gaara eat his words and brought pain to his world, the redhead realized that the Genius of Hard work wasn't just going to lay down and die. The events that proceeded that moment wouldn't soon be forgotten, but when Gaara attempted to murder Lee with his Sand...needless to say, most of the Genins eyes was opened to the dangers and abundance of skill in the world, and where they stood in it.

Lee likely wouldn't be able to continue with shinobi duties ever again. It was stated that Senju Tsunade was the only one who stood a chance of healing Lee properly, but Kami only knew where she was. It took everything she had not to cry when she overheard the medic-nin say his career would be over due to his injuries. As if his body was well and permanently broken. _'At least he'd still be able to live a normal life,'_ TenTen thought with some hope.

As if that hadn't been enough, Neji later attempted to murder his cousin and her best-friend, Hyuuga Hinata because of the injustice he felt for being branded with the Caged Bird seal. She knew about it all, how could she not? It was Neji's one driving force, what made him who he was, and what had led to her romantic attraction towards her teammate.

Thankfully, depending on how one looked at it, Hinata had the frame of mind to activate Neji's seal; otherwise he may have killed the timid, soft-spoken girl. Despite using the seal, Neji still destroyed her, but as she held consciousness longer than Neji, Hinata had been declared the winner. Still, Neji had targeted Hinata's heart a few times before and her injuries were grievous. It was likely that Hinata wouldn't be able to compete for the Chunin Exam Finals.

Team Gai would have many training sessions and likely few missions, if any.

All that aside, her sensei called for a team meeting this morning after allowing for a week for personal time. The brunette was silently thankful for that; her loss to Temari combined with Lee's situation left her confidence violently wavering. Being an orphan had its perks though and she was grateful not to have to come home to her one bedroom apartment and have sympathy rained down upon her by well meaning parents. She felt that would be most insufferable on top of everything else.

Although she'd been practicing at home and on her lonesome, the entire past week, she felt like she was simply going through the motions, and nothing had changed at all. The worst part about it was, she felt that if she had to fight Temari again tomorrow, the result would be exactly the same. Because of her conflicting emotions of doubt, frustration, anger, and slight depression; she just retreated into herself. She just couldn't seem to get herself passed the slump, although she knew she hadn't been the only one eliminated, and she certainly still had a career as a ninja.

_"Still, what an absolute embarrassment."_ TenTen had to chide herself to leave it alone after stepping into the tub, finding herself beneath the shower head as it sprayed her with soothing, hot water. _"Something has to give."_ She finished her thought as she soaped her toned body under the hot spray of water, later filling her brown hair with shampoo.

**. … . … .**

Freshly showered and dressed in her usual attire, TenTen departed her small apartment home into another hot, sunny day in Konoha. She made sure to keep her head low in case she happened across anyone she knew, hoping to avoid them and avoid being seen. She just didn't wish to be bothered by anyone else's life events and she was barely dealing with her own demoralization. Keeping her pace steady but quick TenTen soon found herself about to enter the training grounds most exclusively used by Team Gai. Their training area was unique in that it had a little bit of everything. While being surrounded by the usual forestry, a small lake passed through the inner perimeter, providing a water source. Besides the usual targets and training dummies posted on one end of the area there were also large rocks and boulders sprinkled throughout the grounds.

Besides Gai and Lee, no one really bothered using them in their training or practice unless one wanted to test a strong ninjutsu. In that case the larger, unmovable boulders were perfect since they weren't easily destroyed. Other than the previously listed resources, it was like most other training fields in that it was a wide area with lush grass, albeit slightly overgrown.

Before she stepped off the path where the trees opened up and gave way to the training area TenTen could hear the telltale signs of a high energy spar taking place. She was immediately curious as Lee was still in Konoha hospital having his injuries taken care of and Gai-sensei had said to come for a team meeting, not training. Neji rarely sparred Gai-sensei and when he did, he wasn't very loud, and she could clearly sense a chakra signature she recognized but couldn't pin down.

TenTen looked surprised curiosity when she stepped out to the outer perimeter of the training field and came to stand next to Neji. She noted he had his Byukugan activated as he watched from the sideline.

"Neji-kun..." The brown haired kunoichi greeted softly before bringing her question forth. "Who is Gai-sensei fighting with?" It was obvious from the blur of green that the veteran shinobi was one of the participants and while the other person was slower, it didn't make him much less of a blur.

"Morning," Neji greeted formally before the hint of a superior smirk became apparent. "You'll never guess who it is." He said as he kept his arms folded across his chest, standing stiff and straight as usual.

"What?" She responded in confusion, before shaking her head. It was obvious Neji was still in a mood and while she would've ignored him and just waited for an answer instead; she was very curious as to who it was.

The only other visitors they usually got while here was other Jonin sensei's and rarely with their teams. Neither of whom wanted to spar with Gai or Team Gai due to their methods of sparring and training. Then there were the ANBU, who only came by to deliver summons.

TenTen really wanted to know. She tilted her head at the scene. "Well, who is it?" She asked again.

Neji breathed out a low sigh. "It's that loud mouth failure from the academy-..." His answer abruptly interrupted as he swiftly stepped aside.

Tenten's paused, curious frown deepening for a moment until her eyes lit up with recognition. She ignored Neji's insult, suddenly remembering Lee telling her that 'someone' wanted him to deliver an important message to her.

_Tell Ten-chan I said she's still the strongest kunoichi I know..!_

In all honesty, she'd forgotten all about that since she was feeling out of sorts. Her mind often occupied replaying the events of her loss and the 'whys' that led to it. Despite that fact, when Lee told her that it lifted her spirits, if only a little. She was silently surprised that he still remembered her after all of his own problems and well...she'd nearly forgotten about him. Plus, it was more acknowledgement than she got from most boys, and especially Neji... Ever.

It was then that the large blur that had been moving as one and dominated by green came to a stop as she saw Gai-sensei deliver a strong roundhouse kick to his opponent. The strong kick sent the other tumbling head over end in their direction. The figure roughly slid across the ground leaving a dirt trail behind himself until he stopped at Tenten's feet, making the girl look down at him and blinking in surprise.

"Kurai?" She raised both eyebrows in surprise, jaw falling open at seeing this boy's face again.

Despite just having his body used as a punching bag by the sensei of Team Gai, Kurai, sporting a bleeding lip and a developing bruise on his right cheek shot her a wicked grin as he stared up into her chocolate brown eyes.

"Heya, Bun-chan." TenTen bit her lower lip lightly. The Son clan didn't possess a dojutsu, but they did have stigma in their eyes like certain holders of dojutsu. When a Son clan member reached maturity, a clan ritual was performed to place a Yin-Yang stigma into their pupils. It was fitting since the clan had an affinity for using Yin and Yang chakra. It was purely symbolism. Kurai told her about it when they were still in the academy, but this was her first time seeing it, and she kind of missed the pure brown eyes she remembered him having.

"Kurai...what are you doing here?" TenTen inquired, not quite over the surprise of him being present her question came out rudely by mistake. Still, she knelt down to help the taller boy up.

"Losing horribly apparently," Neji remarked arrogantly as he deactivated his Byakugan.

Kurai held back a sneer as he was helped up, narrowing his eyes at Neji. He was unsurprised to see that the Hyuuga was still the same arrogant asshole he'd been in the academy, and he'd been a borderline bully towards him.

Kurai just shook his head, not wanting to let the Hyuuga ruin his good mood. "...What am I doing here, she says… What a greeting." TenTen went to apologize when Kurai suddenly moved in for a hug. "I just wanted to come by and you know, say you look good. And also not to worry about your loss since your potential is infinite, it's just something to learn from."

TenTen moved to take a step back when he moved in for a hug. She'd been avoiding people just for this reason, the pity and misplaced sympathy. However, the boy seemed to know what she'd do and caught her before she could get away from him. It wasn't that she was unfamiliar or uncomfortable with Kurai; on the contrary, they got along fairly well during the academy because he respected and acknowledged her strength and her goal of becoming a kunoichi to rival Senju Tsunade.

No...TenTen was hesitant because she did know Kurai. She didn't admit it to anyone else, but she realized just now exactly how vulnerable she felt about the bad loss, and Kurai was just the smooth type that knew just what to say or do.

'You look good,' she'd heard him say and she knew him well enough to know he meant it, but also because as confident as she was in herself, she rarely received compliments. As a result she started to blush and it caused her to pause long enough for Kurai to reach her and hug her. Thanks to that and the following hug she felt her body being flooded by emotions she'd been ignoring as the walls concealing her pain began to crumble. Finally, she hugged him back.

Gai had been approaching, but stopped when he realized that his student was being comforted by an old friend, putting an end to their spar. Neji watched, eyes narrowed at the 'failure' and ready to jump in but when TenTen didn't bother to fight him back, he remained silent. _'However, even if she did fight against him, why would I stop it? At the least, her attention wouldn't be on me for once. Team worthy, yes. Hyuuga clan worthy? Most certainly not...'_

When Kurai attempted to pull back from the hug to end it, TenTen silently clutched herself to him. She pressed her forehead against his chest, fisting his clothes into her grasp as the tears started to fall.

"It's all good, Bun-chan. I know..." He whispered into her ear as he began to rub her back in a circular motion while smiling consolingly. He knew TenTen was damn stubborn; that she'd agonize over being weak and retreat into herself. He could tell from the moment she helped him to his feet...he knew her doubts and could relate. The doubt that emerged because of loss and failure when you felt like you'd worked as hard as you could and could do no more was a familiar feeling to him.

It made one question their motives, their reality, skills, talent... Other times it made people give up on themselves. He knew there were greater things in the world to worry about than a loss in the Chunin Exams, but it hurt just the same. "You know I'm here for you..." He said so only she could hear, prompting the girl to nod her head.

TenTen let awareness of her surroundings melt away as she gave in. She didn't care that Gai-sensei was nearby and what he would say, nor did she care about Neji's approval of her actions, and whether or not she appeared weak before him; not right now. It's why she gave in to Kurai, he knew and she knew that he understood the meaning behind her tears.

"Alright," Kurai pat her on the back one final time, whispering to her so only she would hear him. "You got it all out, that's enough now."

"It's good to see you again," she mumbled shyly against his black mesh shirt as she began to gain control of herself and reign in her emotions.

"I'm glad to see you again too, Bun-chan!" He responded with that nickname again and purposely arrogant smirk. It was a nickname that used to infuriate her before and he'd use it all the time for that reason alone. When she started getting flustered enough to go after him for calling her that, he would just say she was cute when she was angry, and that in turn would fluster her enough to miss him with anything she was throwing at him at the time...and TenTen never missed.

She wiped her eyes clear of the tears and shot him a threatening grin as she punched him in the chest. "What did I tell you about calling me that." She tried a smile, but was nearly startled from how hard his chest felt when she hit him. _'Wowza...what kind of training has he been doing to harden his body so much. He was one of the softest in our academy class. I guess he's leveled up too.' _TenTen thought.

"Aw, come on, Ten-chan. It's been so long, you really not going to let me get away with it just the once?" He joked as TenTen denied his request and the two began bantering back and forth for a brief moment. Neji's eyes were still narrowed, but for a different reason. He was really unsure of what to make of his teammate acting so…'girlish?' He supposed was the word. He hadn't known she'd been so close to the former academy loser.

"It looks like you've all caught up, and with a very youthful show of support if I might say so!" Gai said in his enthusiastic way after walking over, to which TenTen and Kurai nodded while Neji simply grunted. "I'll explain the reason for the team meeting then. As our dear friend and teammate, Lee, will be off active duty...indefinitely." Gai's bright expression slipped a little at the statement, but didn't let it stop his explanation. "Hokage-sama has asked that Kurai-san fill in on Team Gai while Lee's situation is fully studied. Kurai's former team, Team 3, will be vacated for reasons I cannot say."

Gai looked over the three, Neji was still in his own world stoic and seeming unconcerned. TenTen was nudging Kurai in his side, asking about his team situation while the boy himself was shaking his head and acting as if he didn't know what she was talking about. Gai nodded to himself, this might do.

Gai continued to explain. "We'll keep training as usual and taking missions like nothing has changed, but in light of the team's situation...I want to get Kurai accustomed to working with the team."

It was at that moment that Neji nearly instantly stopped listening. _'...This is going to be a pain.'_

Kurai wouldn't blame Neji if he could hear his thoughts right then, because he agreed. _'This is madness. For sure I'm glad I won't have to be stuck in the village's general services, but damn… I get to relearn call signs, lingo, and formations. Ugghhh!' _He mentally gagged then smiled at TenTen to mask those negative. _'Well...maybe it won't be all bad.'_

"Yosh! A youthful personality with youthful ambitions all around!" Gai immediately declared, getting a long suffering sigh from TenTen and making Kurai laugh at her. "That will conclude today's team meeting, I shall see you all the next day at 10 a.m., until then!" Gai saluted and left, going to do whatever it is that Gai did.

"Yo, TenTen." Kurai grinned when the girl turned to him. "How about a spar? I really want to see just how good you've gotten. I can't continue calling you the strongest kunoichi I know when I have no idea what level you're at, now can I?" He joked, winking.

TenTen smiled, but it was forced. She bit her lip lightly. "Kurai," she sighed doubtfully, "I don't know, I-..."

"Nonsense TenTen! We went over this before the meeting, you've got nothing to worry about with or to hide from me. Now, let's get it in!" Kurai said, moving behind her and placing his hands on her shoulders and gently pushing her forward into a part of the training field.

"Kurai…" She warned, but it failed and she could only sigh. "Fine, but just one go...and I don't care what you say, I'm using my weapons! Least you could do for forcing me…" She muttered.

"Aye. No problem. Anything you want Bun-chan." Kurai teased before having to leap away from the weapon addicted kunoichi, who turned to aim a strong kick to his chin for the name calling. Kurai chuckled. "When you're ready...Bun-chan." He winked as he lowered into a basic academy style taijutsu form while TenTen began to slowly, ever so slowly, reach for one of the scrolls attached to the belt at her back.

'_Oh, I'm definitely sticking around to watch TenTen knock Kurai down a peg or two.' _Neji thought with a scoff as he watched said boy set himself into one of those weak and useless academy standard forms.

TenTen continued staring down Kurai, just barely reaching for one of her scrolls. "Hajime!" She suddenly called out, taking hold of her scroll as Kurai made to close in on her. "Welcome to the team, Kurai-kun!" She announced, unsealing something from the scroll.

**Chapter End**

**. … . … .**

_**AN: **_Came across the early rough draft of this fic I had for a TenTen story and it was in pretty good shape, I still remember the plot, and I love working with characters (especially the women of Naruto, who were all special yet used little) that didn't get whole lot of attention. And so here I am. I cleaned it up, edited the full chapter, and posted here for you to enjoy.

The fic is called Manipulated Tools for a reason, so while this fic starts off light, things will get heavy as the tale unfolds. I don't know who TenTen will be paired with in this, but you see early on that Kurai is making a good play while Neji seems indifferent or outright against it. Pending how this goes, she may end up with someone else. This is an Alternate Universe fic as well.

Last note, I have the second chapter to Manipulated Tools already written and awaited clean up and editing. That and an update for Grey/Label should come in the next day or two.

Review or comment if you feel free. Thanks for reading.


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